Tourist Hotels In Tokelau Islands?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 18

Tourist Hotels In Tokelau Islands?

The Minister of Island Territories (Mr Hanan) wanted to move the Tokelau islanders off their tiny Pacific atolls so that tourist hotels could be built there, said Mr T. R. Smith, former Secretary-General of the South Pacific Commission last evening.

Now a lecturer in political science at Victoria University of Wellington, Mr Smith was speaking at the annual convention of the Institute of Public Administration.

in the Pacific, and Mr Hanan had addressed it earlier in the day on New Zealand’s responsibilities in the Pacific Islands. He had said that the economic future of the Tokelau Islands was “absolutely and utterly hopeless,” and that the New Zealand scheme to resettle all who wanted to emigrate to New Zealand was one of the most thrilling experiments he had been associated with.

The theme of the conference is New Zealand’s place

In his address, Mr Smith also put forward the view that the sandy atolls were practically uninhabitable. Only coconuts would grow there, he said, and if the coconut beetle got into them, the atolls would become totally uninhabitable. “Atolls are pleasant places for tourist hotels and no more,” said Mr Smith. “That’s why Mr Hanan is so keen to take the Tokelauans out of their islands.” Mr Hanan had also discussed the future of the islands. “I think it probable that most of the population will wish to settle here,” he said. “The question then arises as to what will happen to the islands. A possibility which has been considered, should this eventuate, is that the islands should be used as commercial coconut plantations and the income used for the benefit of the people.”